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FLASHBACK: SERIES
WORLD BANK’S NEW TOOLKIT

➢ The World Bank launched a “Toolkit on Enabling Gender Responsive Urban

Mobility and Public Spaces in India” with the aim of suggesting ways to make
public transport in Indian cities more inclusive of women’s travelling
requirements.
➢ The toolkit emphasises on the importance of integrating a gender lens in
transport policies and infrastructures.
➢ It makes various recommendations on interventions that can help make urban
transport safer, especially for women.

FLASHBACK
➢ The toolkit brings together 50 case studies of best practices and efforts from
across the world, along with
a special inculcation of the Why this toolkit?

Indian context. ➢ Lower socio-economic groups, are among

the biggest users of public transport in
➢ Studies show that women,
Indian cities.
especially those from lower
➢ Indian women have unique mobility
socio-economic groups,
patterns.
are among the biggest
➢ India’s female labour force participation
users of public transport
rate is among the lowest in the world.
in Indian cities. Their
➢ Currently, urban mobility systems are not
dependence on public
catered to these unique needs of women.
transport stems from lower
discretionary incomes.

➢ Further, women have unique mobility patterns, often travelling shorter

distances, using multiple modes of transport, and travelling with dependents,
during “off-peak hours”.

➢ Currently, urban mobility systems are not catered to these unique needs of women.

➢ This can make travel inconvenient, unsafe, and also more expensive for them,
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putting an additional burden on a section of society which is already disadvantaged.

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➢ While many women use public transport on a daily basis out of compulsion, the
state of public transport systems has a major impact on a variety of decisions
made by women.
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➢ Studies have shown that lack of safe, inexpensive and reliable public transport
has a profound impact on women’s ability to access education and employment
opportunities, in turn leading to poorer life outcomes for them.

➢ India’s female labour force participation rate is among the lowest in the world,
standing at just 30% in 2019-20.

➢ Lack of viable urban transport is frequently cited as a major impediment for women
to access better employment opportunities.

➢ Studies have also shown how distance from home impacts women’s choice of
colleges and other educational institutions — and by implication their financial
independence and agency.

Major concerns of public transport

➢ Lack of safety and also the lack of a perception of safety are a major impediment
for women when it comes to accessing public transport.

➢ Dearth of good
street lighting, no Who does this toolkit help?
➢ According to the World Bank, the toolkit contains
reliable last mile
practical tools that can inform a wide set of
transport, and high
policymakers as well as private or community-
waiting time at
based organisations.
remote bus stops
➢ The aim is for this toolkit to be a reference for any
are just some of the
entity engaging in any work regarding public
challenges in this
transport and urban mobility.
regard.
➢ Not only does this tool kit provide many practical
➢ Crucially, beyond interventions, it also highlights certain thematic
being safe, public issues that one can encounter in this space.
transport ➢ Crucially, the point of this toolkit is not to make
infrastructure also gender an additional concern for policy
needs to be makers and developers.
perceived to be safe, ➢ Rather, it is to integrate a gender lens into
as it is the everyday planning and development in order to
perception that make our cities safer and more accessible to
guides decisions to women.
use such transport.

➢ With safety issues turning women away from using public transport, a vicious
cycle is created — unsafe transport leads to fewer women travelling out which in
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turn leads to fewer women out in public spaces which actually make these spaces
even more unsafe.

[Link]
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➢ Since the burden of care work (mostly unpaid) lies disproportionately on women,
they often need to plan their travel far more meticulously than men, having to juggle
various responsibilities at home and work.

➢ For instance, a working mother might have to plan her travel schedule around
the school timings of her child and the office timings of her husband.

➢ This means that women have a far greater need for public transport to be time-
wise reliable and efficient with longer waiting times and delays having a deleterious
effect on them.

What does the World Bank toolkit suggest?

➢ The World Bank suggests a four-pillared approach to help address prevailing issues
in urban transport for women.

➢ First, there has to

Why women face higher costs of travelling?
be greater effort ➢ First, women have to stitch together various
made to short commutes to fulfil the many responsibilities
understand the they have.
on-ground ➢ For instance, a typical day for a working mother
situation with a might involve commutes from home to school
gender lens. back to home, then to her place of work, then
➢ Gender blind back to school and back to home. The World Bank
planning and recognises this as “trip chaining” and this
infrastructure increases travel costs.
development ➢ Second, women often also make decisions to use
leaves major gaps certain kinds of more expensive routes or forms
that specifically of transport on account of them being perceived to
impact women but be safer.
are often not ➢ For instance, women often take longer routes to
overtly visible. travel which are perceived to be safer, rather than

➢ Second, once travelling through “unsafe areas”.

prevailing issues ➢ All these factors amount together as a “pink tax”

are identified, that specifically burden women and impede them

policies and from making optimal decisions for them.

development plans
must reflect the concerns of women. For this to happen there must be more women
in key institutions in charge of decision making.
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➢ Third, the toolkit emphasises on building gender sensitivity and awareness

among service providers through mandatory programmes and community
action.

[Link]
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➢ Everyone from the bus conductor to local beat constables must be aware of concerns
that women have and how to address them.

➢ Fourth, investment has to be made in better infrastructure and services with a focus
on women-friendly design.

➢ While increasing services and strengthening infrastructure is a good idea in general,

if such development is made from a specific gender lens, it is far more useful.

➢ For example, while creating new bus stops is good, it would be even better if these
bus stops were designed to be level with the floors of buses, adequate lighting,
SOS buttons, and well-maintained washrooms.

➢ Some concrete interventions that the toolkit suggests include creation of wide
obstruction-free footpaths, street lighting, clear signages, dedicated bicycle lanes,
introduction of short and circuitous bus routes, and subsidising/making free public
transport for women.

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[Link]
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FB SERIES (09 JANUARY 2023)

FLASHBACK: SERIES
GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY FRAMEWORK

➢ 15th edition (COP15) of Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) conference

was successfully held in Montreal, Canada with a global deal to protect the
ecosystems.
➢ The Montreal Conference has delivered a new agreement called the Global
Biodiversity Framework (GBF), which contains four goals and 23 targets that
need to be achieved by 2030.
➢ The GBF is being compared to the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change
that is guiding global climate action.

FLASHBACK

Biodiversity Convention
➢ The comparison of the biodiversity meetings with the climate conferences is not
incidental. The two are in fact closely related.

➢ The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the CBD were
both outcomes of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit — as was the third member of the
family, the
Convention to What is CBD?
Combat ➢ It is a 1993 agreement that meet every two years
Desertification
to work on a global plan to halt biodiversity loss
(CCD), which deals
and restore natural ecosystems.
specifically with the
issue of land ➢ It is not just about conservation and restoration of
degradation.
ecosystems.
➢ The CBD came into
➢ It is also about sustainable use of natural
force in 1993, the
other two in the resources, and equitable sharing of benefits from the

following year. use of these resources.

➢ The three ➢ It was formed in the Rio Earth Summit 1992.
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environmental
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conventions seek to address the issues that overlap among them. Climate change
is one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss, while changes in land and ocean use
have an impact on climate change.

[Link]
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➢ Land degradation appears as a cause as well as effect in both climate change and
biodiversity loss.

➢ So, while all the three agreements hold their separate COPs, the interlinkages,
not very obvious in the 1990s, are getting increasingly evident. The success on any
one helps the cause of the others too.

➢ The CBD is not just about conservation and restoration of ecosystems. It is also
about sustainable use of natural resources, and equitable sharing of benefits
from the use of these resources.

➢ For example, if a European pharmaceutical company wants to make use of some

medicinal properties of plants grown in Tamil Nadu, the benefits of such use,
monetary or otherwise, must be equitably shared among all stakeholders, including
the indigenous populations that are custodians of that specific biological
resource.

The 30 x 30 target
➢ The meeting in Montreal that concluded on 19 December 2022 was the second part
of COP15, the first part having been held in Kunming in China last year.
Kunming was supposed to hold the entire COP15, but due to Covid-19 restrictions,
it could only organise a hybrid event — part online, part in-person meetings — in
October last year.

➢ A full meeting was scheduled for April this year, but the Covid situation in China
was still not conducive.

➢ Finally, the conference had to be shifted to Montreal, the home of CBD, even though
it was held under the presidency of China.

➢ The grabbing part of the four goals and 23 targets in the Global Biodiversity
Framework is what is commonly referred to as the 30×30 target: a commitment to
protect at least 30 per cent of the world’s lands, oceans and coastal areas by
2030.

➢ A related commitment is to ensure that restoration activities would be started on

at least 30 per cent of degraded land or marine ecosystems by 2030.

➢ The overall goal is to ensure that all natural ecosystems are maintained, enhanced
or restored “substantially”, with an overall increase in the area of natural
ecosystems by 2050.

➢ Another goal is to ensure a ten-fold reduction in extinction rate of species —

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currently estimated to be tens to hundreds of times higher than the average of

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the last 10 million years.

➢ A recent report said that about 1 million species face extinction, some within a few
decades, if urgent action is not taken.
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➢ Among the other 2030 targets is a commitment to reduce global food wastage by
half, reduce the risk of pesticides and other chemicals by half, and cut at least
US$ 500 billion every year from subsidies that harm biodiversity.

➢ The 23 targets for 2030, including the 30×30 target, are milestones towards the
overall goals for 2050.

Evaluating the deal

➢ Though important, this is not the first time that countries at CBD have listed
out specific targets for protecting biodiversity.

➢ In fact, the latest exercise is just a replacement of similar targets that were meant
to be achieved in
the 2010-2020
What were the Aichi Targets?
➢ The Aichi Targets, adopted during the 2010 CBD
decade.
summit in Nagoya, located in Japan’s Aichi
➢ In 2010, at prefecture, included goals such as reducing
COP10 in deforestation by at least half during the coming
Nagoya, Japan, decade and curbing pollution so that it no longer
countries had harmed ecosystems.
agreed to a ➢ Many of the targets, however, included vague
Strategic Plan language and did not hold countries to a specific
for Biodiversity action, experts say.
containing 20 ➢ After parties adopted the Aichi Targets, they were
targets. expected to devise their own national biodiversity
➢ These used to be strategies that would mimic the goals laid out by
called the Aichi Aichi. Nearly all parties created these strategies, but
targets — Aichi most were never fully implemented.
is the region in
which Nagoya city is located. A recent report showed that none of these targets were
achieved at the end of the decade.

➢ The GBF is to the 2020-30 decade what the Aichi targets were for the previous
one. The challenge will be in their implementation.

To what extent were the Aichi Targets met?

➢ The most notable Aichi objective — and one of the few to include a numerical goal
— aimed to protect or conserve 17% of all land and inland waters and 10% of
the ocean by the end of the decade. While some progress was made toward that
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goal, the world ultimately fell short.

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➢ Today about 15% of the world’s land and 8% of ocean territories are under some
form of protection, though the level of protection varies.

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➢ About 10% of the targets saw no significant progress, the assessment found. Six
of the targets, including the land and ocean conservation target, were deemed
“partially achieved”.

➢ At a global level, none of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets were met or achieved, but
we also know that some progress was made at the national level in a number of
countries, said Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, executive secretary of the CBD.

➢ In the end, Aichi was deemed a failure by the United Nations and the CBD
secretariat called on parties to come up with another guiding document to direct
conservation efforts through 2030 and beyond.

Why did the Aichi Targets fail?

➢ A lack of clearly defined metrics by which to gauge progress made the Aichi goals
tough to implement, experts say.

➢ Aichi was made of aspirational targets, which was great for…enabling people to
do a lot, but not great for communication.

➢ One of the reasons the world was able to meet the goal for conserving 17% of land
areas globally, was simply that the goal’s success could be defined by that single
number.

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[Link]
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FLASHBACK: SERIES
INDIA’S FIRST LAW FOR PIRACY

➢ The Maritime Anti-Piracy Bill 2019 is the first domestic law to empower
Indian authorities and courts to deal with piracy and pirate ships on the high
seas.
➢ High seas include the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of India, the EEZ of any
other State, as well as all waters beyond the jurisdiction of any other State, i.e.
international waters.
➢ EEZ is an area of the ocean between 12 nautical miles and 200 nautical miles
from the coastline of India. This is an area within which a coastal nation has
jurisdiction over both living and non-living resources.

FLASHBACK
➢ The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 9 December 2019 and was then
referred to the Standing Committee on External Affairs for detailed examination.
The committee
submitted its report on
the Bill in February
2011.

➢ The Bill was then passed

by the Lok Sabha on 19
December and the Rajya
Sabha on 21 December.
The fifteen sections Bill
will become a law once
the President provides
her assent to it.

➢ The Bill “Ensuring maritime security is key to safeguarding India’s security and
economic well-being.”

➢ Since more than 90 per cent of India’s trade takes place by sea routes and over
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80 per cent of the country’s hydrocarbon requirements were sea-borne, security

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of these routes and lanes of communication is critical.

➢ The Bill allows Indian authorities to take action against piracy in the high seas.
High seas include the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of India.

[Link]
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➢ The Bill intends to

What is piracy?
give effect to the
➢ The Bill defines piracy as any illegal act of
1992 United
violence or detention or damage or destruction
Nations
committed by any person, or by the crew or any
Convention on the
passenger of a private ship.
Law of the Sea
➢ Such illegal acts come under the definition of
(UNCLOS), which
piracy if they are committed against another ship
provides a
or any person or property on board a ship, on the
framework for
high seas.
combating piracy
➢ If anybody voluntarily participated in operating
and armed
a ship knowing that it is a pirate ship, they can
robbery at sea.
also be held guilty of piracy.
➢ This is in view of the ➢ A pirate ship has been defined as a ship which is
fact that such intended to be used by anybody who controls it for
activities of piracy activities.
piracy or pirate ➢ The law applies to ships, seaplanes and other
ships threaten aircraft capable of being used as a means of
maritime security transportation on water or being engaged in any
and endanger the operations at sea.
welfare of sailors
and the security of navigation and commerce.

➢ The Bill also speaks of the increase in piracy incidents towards the western coast
of India.

Why is a law needed?

➢ India is a party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea adopted
by the United Nations on 10 December 1982, and ratified the convention on 29
June 1995.

➢ Up until now, it did not have any domestic law on maritime piracy. Therefore,
Indian Penal Code provisions relating to armed robbery are usually used to
prosecute pirates apprehended by the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard. However,
this has proven to be inadequate in the past.

➢ The hijacking of Japanese ship MV Alondra Rainbow in 1999– the first sea
piracy case tried by an Indian court–is often cited as an example of such
inadequacy.
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➢ A group of armed Indonesian pirates were captured by the Indian Coast Guard
in the Arabian Sea and they were tried in India.

[Link]
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➢ While a sessions court in Bombay tried and convicted the pirates under various
sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Bombay high court overruled the lower
court’s decision and acquitted all the accused in April 2005.

➢ The statement of objects and reasons of the 2019 Bill also explains the growth in
piracy.

➢ It explains that the Gulf of Aden– which separates Somalia and Yemen and
connects the Arabian Sea to the Red Sea and through the Suez Canal to the
Mediterranean Sea– has seen a spurt in attacks by pirates operating from Somalia
since 2008.

➢ This route is used by 2,000 ships each month for trade between Asia and Europe
and the East coast of Africa.

➢ However, the statement says that with enhanced naval presence in the Gulf of
Aden, pirates shifted their area of operations, leading to several such piracy
incidents towards the western coast of India as well.

What does the Bill Say?

➢ The Bill provides for a maximum punishment of life imprisonment or fine or both,
for anybody who commits any act of piracy.

➢ This punishment can increase to a life imprisonment or death penalty if any person
is found to have caused somebody’s death or attempts to cause somebody’s death
while committing the act of piracy.

➢ An attempt to commit piracy or helping someone to commit piracy is punishable

with a jail term of up to ten years.

➢ Participating or organizing, or directing others to participate in an act of piracy will

be punishable with up to 14 years of imprisonment, or a fine or both.

➢ As to whom will implement the law, the central government can confer powers of
arrest, investigation and prosecution– as are available to a police officer under the
Code of Criminal Procedure to any of its officers or any state government officer.

➢ If an authorized personnel then suspects that any ship is engaged in piracy on the
high seas, he can board the ship and arrest the people or seize the ship and
property on board.

➢ The Bill also provides for designation of a specific sessions court in the States for
speedy trial of offences under the law.
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➢ Notably, this court would have the jurisdiction to handle cases against any person
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apprehended by or in the custody of the authorised personnel or police– irrespective

of their nationality or citizenship of the person.

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➢ In other words, these courts would be able to handle trials against foreigners
caught under this law as well, along with Indian citizens, or resident foreign
nationals in India or stateless people.

➢ However, warships and government-owned ships employed for non-commercial

purposes will not be under the jurisdiction of the court.

Bail conditions
➢ Section 12 of the Bill lays down the bail conditions under the law–similar to the
much criticised bail conditions prescribed by the Narcotics Drugs and
Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act 1985.

➢ It requires the court to have “reasonable grounds” to believe that the accused is not
guilty and that he is unlikely to commit another offence while on bail.

➢ The bail provision under UAPA, which has been the talking point over the past few
years owing to its stringency, does not have any such pre-condition.

➢ The Supreme Court acknowledged this in February this year, saying that the
bail provision under UAPA is “comparatively less stringent” than the bail
provision under NDPS. Therefore, this new Bill now has bail conditions more
stringent than UAPA.

➢ Additionally, the Bill also provides for presumption of guilt of the accused,
unless the contrary is proved, in case certain conditions are satisfied.

➢ For instance, the accused would be presumed to have committed the offence, if arms,
ammunition, explosives and other equipment are recovered from the possession of
the accused, and there are reasonable grounds to believe that these were used, or
intended to be used in commission of an offence.

➢ This would also apply if there is evidence of an intended threat of using bombs,
arms, firearms, explosives or committing any form of violence against the crew,
passengers or cargo of a ship.

➢ The fundamental principle of criminal law is that an accused is presumed to be

innocent until proven guilty, and therefore, the burden lies on the prosecution to
prove his guilt.
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[Link]
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BENGALURU: KORMANGALA 7619166663 & CHANDRA LAYOUT 7619136662| BHOPAL: 7509975361 | INDORE: 7314977441 | IMPHAL: 9650245599
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FLASHBACK: SERIES
GREEN HYDROGEN MISSION

➢ The government has formally approved the National Green Hydrogen Mission
with a stated aim of making India a global hub for the production of green
hydrogen.
➢ This will contribute to India’s aim to become Aatmanirbhar (self-reliant) through
clean energy and serve as an inspiration for the global Clean Energy Transition.
➢ India’s Mission was first announced by the Prime Minister in his Independence
Day speech in 2021.

FLASHBACK
➢ A mission outlay of Rs 19,744 crore was cleared by the Union Cabinet on 4 January
2023, aimed at the creation of export opportunities for green hydrogen and its
derivatives.

➢ Decarbonisation of
the energy sector
and use in mobility
applications in a bid to
lower the dependence
on imported fossil
fuels; and the
development of
indigenous
manufacturing
capacities.

➢ The ultimate aim is to

fuel key sectors of the economy using hydrogen that is made by splitting water
through an electrical process called electrolysis, using a device called electrolyser
that is powered entirely by renewable energy.

Why Hydrogen as a fuel?

➢ Hydrogen, the most common element in nature, exists only in combination with
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other elements, and has to be extracted from naturally occurring compounds like
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water (which is a combination of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom).

➢ Hydrogen is a clean molecule, but the process of extracting it is energy intensive.

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➢ While hydrogen’s potential as a clean fuel source has a history of nearly 150
years, it was only after the oil price shocks of the 1970s that the possibility of
hydrogen replacing fossil fuels came to be considered seriously.

➢ The sources and processes by which hydrogen is derived are categorised by colour
tabs.

➢ Hydrogen produced
from fossil fuels is
called grey
hydrogen, which
constitutes the bulk
of the hydrogen
generated today.

➢ Hydrogen generated
from fossil fuels
with carbon
capture and
storage options is
called blue
hydrogen, while hydrogen generated using electrolysers powered by renewable
power sources is called green hydrogen.

Potential of Green hydrogen

➢ Green hydrogen has specific advantages. One, it is a clean burning molecule that
can decarbonise a range of sectors including iron and steel, chemicals, and
transportation.

➢ Two, renewable energy that cannot be stored or used by the grid can be channeled
to produce hydrogen.

➢ Green hydrogen is not commercially viable at present. The current cost in India
is around Rs 350-400 per kg; it is likely to become viable only at a production cost
of under Rs 100/ kg. This is what the Hydrogen Energy Mission aims for.

➢ With implicit subsidy support and a government-backed R&D push, the plan is to
target lower costs of renewable power generation and to bring down the costs of
electrolysers to make the production of green hydrogen cost-competitive.

➢ Green hydrogen could eventually potentially replace fossil fuels and fossil fuel-
based feedstocks in fertiliser production, petroleum refining, steel production,
and transport applications.

➢ The United States and European Union have already pledged incentives worth
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several billions of dollars for green hydrogen projects.

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➢ India’s Mission was first announced by the Prime Minister in his Independence Day
speech in 2021.

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➢ The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is in the process of formulating

guidelines for the scheme that seeks to promote the development of green
hydrogen production capacity of at least 5 million metric tonnes (MMT) per
annum with an associated renewable energy capacity addition of about 125
gigawatts (GW) by 2030.

➢ A major part of this is a proposed Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen

Transition Programme (SIGHT), under which two financial incentive
mechanisms — targeting domestic manufacturing of electrolysers and the
production of green hydrogen — will be promoted to achieve a reduction in fossil
fuel imports and abatement of annual greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

➢ The draft Mission document is likely to propose support for production and
deployment of green hydrogen, alongside a major push for hydrogen in the auto
sector — R&D for fuel cell development and pilot projects for fuel cell vehicles.

Auto sector, fuel cells

➢ Hydrogen is an energy carrier, not a source of energy. Hydrogen fuel must be
transformed into electricity by a device called a fuel cell stack before it can be used
to power a car or truck.

➢ A fuel cell converts chemical energy into electrical energy using oxidising
agents through an oxidation-reduction reaction.

➢ Fuel cell-based vehicles most commonly combine hydrogen and oxygen to produce
electricity to power the electric motor on board. Since fuel cell vehicles use
electricity to run, they are considered electric vehicles (EVs).

➢ Inside each fuel cell, hydrogen is drawn from an onboard pressurised tank and
made to react with a catalyst, usually made from platinum.

➢ As the hydrogen passes through the catalyst, it is stripped of its electrons, which
are forced to move along an external circuit, producing an electrical current.

➢ This current is used by the electric motor to power the vehicle, with the only
byproduct being water vapour.

➢ Hydrogen fuel cell cars have a near-zero carbon footprint. Hydrogen is about 2-3
times as efficient as burning petrol, because an electric chemical reaction is
much more efficient than combustion.

Use cases in India

➢ India’s electricity grid is predominantly coal-based and will continue to be so, thus
negating collateral benefits from a major EV push — as coal will have to be burnt
to generate the electricity that will power these vehicles.
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➢ In several countries that are pushing EVs, much of the electricity is generated from
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renewables — in Norway for example, 99 per cent is hydroelectric power.

➢ Hydrogen vehicles can be especially effective in long-haul trucking and other hard-
to-electrify sectors such as shipping and long-haul air travel.

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➢ Using heavy batteries in these applications would be counterproductive, especially

for countries such as India, where the electricity grid is predominantly coal-fired.

➢ Also, given that much of the generation capacity addition over the last 10 years
has been by way of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, this can be
diverted for green hydrogen production during non-peak hours.

➢ Besides auto, there is a concerted attempt to leverage green hydrogen in sectors

such as petroleum refining and steel.

➢ In April 2022, state-owned Oil India Limited commissioned India’s first 99.99 per
cent pure green hydrogen plant in Jorhat, Assam.

➢ In the proposed Mission, the steel sector has been made a stakeholder, and it has
been proposed to set up pilot plants with part funding from the government to explore
the feasibility of using green hydrogen in Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) production
by partly replacing natural gas with hydrogen in gas-based DRI plants.

➢ Based on the success of the pilot projects, the gas-based DRI units are to be
encouraged for large-scale adoption of the process.

➢ Kerala has set up a high-level working group for its own Hydrogen Economy
Mission to devise a strategic roadmap, policy formulations, and implementation
plans for facilitating investments in green hydrogen and making the state “a
green hydrogen hub”.

➢ Indian Oil Corporation Ltd’s R&D centre, in collaboration with Tata Motor
Limited, had earlier carried out trials of hydrogen fuel cell buses.

➢ Companies such as Reliance Industries Ltd, Adani Enterprises, JSW Energy, and
Acme Solar have plans to tap the green hydrogen opportunity.

➢ Adani announced in June that it will collaborate with France’s Total Energies to
jointly create the “world’s largest green hydrogen ecosystem”.

US-based Ohmium International has commissioned India’s first green-hydrogen

factory in Karnataka.
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FLASHBACK: SERIES
JOSHIMATH CRISIS

➢ Satellite images released by ISRO’s National Remote Sensing Centre show that
Uttarakhand’s Joshimath witnessed a rapid sinking of 5.4cm because of the
land subsidence.
➢ The PSInSAR satellite technique used to observe the gradual sinking of
Uttarakhand's Joshimath town.
➢ PSInSAR is a powerful remote sensing tool capable of measuring and
monitoring displacements in the Earth's surface over time.

FLASHBACK

➢ The quick subsidence stands in contrast to the slow-paced sinking of the area that
was recorded
between April
and November
2022.

➢ The images
and report
have come
just days
after cracks
appeared in
many roads
and hundreds
of houses in
the city,
which has
now been
declared as a
landslide and
subsidence-hit zone by the authorities.

What is subsidence?

➢ Subsidence is the “sinking of the ground because of underground material

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movement”, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

(NOAA).

➢ It can happen for a host of reasons, man-made or natural, such as the removal of
water, oil, or natural resources, along with mining activities.
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➢ Earthquakes, soil erosion, and soil compaction are also some of the well-known
causes of subsidence.

➢ This phenomenon can “happen over very large areas like whole states or provinces,
or very small areas like the corner of your yard.”

Why is Joshimath sinking?

➢ The exact reason behind the land subsidence in Joshimath is still unknown, but
experts suggest that it might have been caused by unplanned construction,
overpopulation, obstruction of the natural flow of water, and hydel power
activities.

➢ Not only this, the area is What are seismic zones?

➢ A seismic zone is an area where there is a high
a seismic zone, which
makes it prone to probability of earthquakes due to the area’s
frequent tremors. geology.
➢ Seismic zonation, which involves dividing
➢ Warning bells for
Joshimath were first areas based on expected ground motion,
sounded about 50 years assesses the hazards related to earthquakes in
ago in the MC Mishra such areas to provide inputs for safer
committee report, constructions and other practices.
which pointed to
unplanned development
in the area that already had natural vulnerabilities.

➢ According to experts, Joshimath city has been built on ancient landslide material
— meaning it rests on a deposit of sand and stone, not rock, which doesn’t have
a high load-bearing capacity.

➢ Moreover, the lack of a proper drainage system could also have contributed to the
sinking of the area. The accumulated water seeps into the rocks below, softening
them.

➢ Apart from the aforementioned possible reasons, reports have pointed out that
subsidence in Joshimath might have been triggered by the reactivation of a
geographic fault — defined as a fracture or zone of fractures between two blocks
of rock — where the Indian Plate has pushed under the Eurasian Plate along the
Himalayas.

What is PSInSAR satellite technique?

➢ The researchers collected remote sensing data using the Persistent Scatterer
Synthetic Aperture Radar (PSInSAR) Interferometry technique to observe the
sinking.
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➢ A Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a form of radar that is used to create two-
dimensional images or three-dimensional reconstructions of objects, such as
landscapes.

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➢ A signal from an SAR satellite interacts with different targets and goes back to the
sensor located in the satellite, based on which an image is created.

➢ So, for active SAR sensors, the built-up structures such as buildings act as
persistent or permanent scatterers.

➢ Scattering refers to a change in the direction of light because of its collision or

interaction with another particle, say buildings.

➢ The buildings are "scatterers", and because they are usually static and do not
record movements, they are
referred to as "permanent India’s seismic zone maps
scatterers" or "persistent ➢ A published in the Journal of the
scatterers".
International Society for the Prevention and
➢ In PSInSAR, the persistent Mitigation of Natural Hazards said that
scatterers in question are almost 65% of India falls in high to very
imaged over a period of
high seismic zones.
time at regular intervals.
➢ According to the 2002 version of India’s
Therefore, successive images
are acquired. seismic zone map, earthquake-prone regions
in the country are divided into four zones –
➢ Any change in the signal
zone II, III, IV, and V – based on intensity
received after having been
scattered by the target is levels during past earthquakes. However, this
due to change in the target is not the version of the map that has always
movement. been in use.

➢ Since persistent scatterers

are not usually expected to move, therefore, any movement, even on a scale of
millimetres, arising from crustal deformations or seismic activity or even
structural failure is captured precisely.

➢ The IIT-Ropar team had been investigating the surface displacement of Tapovan,
a tourist spot near Joshimath, after the floods of February 2021, when they noticed
that Joshimath was recording a surface displacement of up to 8.5 centimetres
which was on an upward trend.

➢ Joshimath, being only 15 kilometres away from Tapovan, was captured in the
satellite images, enabling the scientists to go back in time up to January 2020 and
look at all the data, this time to study the surface displacement of the town.

➢ The scientists then used this remote sensing data along with artificial intelligence
(AI) algorithms to predict the land subsidence in Joshimath.
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➢ A study by ISRO's
How does it differ from a landslide?
National Remote
Sensing Centre ➢ Land subsidence is when the normal ground itself
(NRSC) shows the starts sinking or gets displaced all together.
town of Joshimath ➢ On the other hand, landslides occur when a mass
sinking by up to 8.9
of rock located at higher elevation falls down on a
centimetres between
April and November lower surface or road either due to slip action or
2022. under influence of gravity.
➢ While landslides are a highly localised
➢ This recorded
phenomenon, land subsidence usually covers a
displacement falls
within the range larger area.
predicted by the IIT ➢ Land subsidence is the slow settling of ground
Ropar study. over a large area, which can happen in plains as

➢ The displacement map well.

from the study shows ➢ However, in a landslide, a mountain slope fails due
that the subsidence is to different reasons, one of them being heavy
maximum in areas
rainfall.
with settlements and
around the Narsingh temple area.

What do India’s seismic zones signify?

➢ The latest seismic zone map of India was released in 2002 with only four zones –
II, III, IV, and V.

➢ Approximately 11% area of the country falls in zone V, 18% in zone IV, 30% in
zone III and the remaining in zone II.

➢ The revised seismic code classifies areas under zone II to coincide with an intensity
of VI and below on the modified CIS-64 scale.

➢ Zone III includes areas that are prone to earthquakes mapped to intensity VII on
the scale, zone IV to intensity VIII, and zone V to intensity IX and above.

➢ Zone IV includes areas prone to earthquakes of severe intensity, and include

Patna, Pilibhit, Ludhiana, Roorkee, Gorakhpur, and Amritsar.

The entire northeast India, parts of northwestern Bihar, Kangra Valley in

Himachal Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, eastern part of Uttarakhand,
Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, and Srinagar area in Jammu and Kashmir were all placed
in zone V – the most seismically active zone.
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